What is a Powersheet?

Powersheet is a configurable, model-driven, table-based editor that allows Polarion users to author, review, and manage complex engineering structures with ease and precision — directly within a document.

At its core, Powersheet serves as a structured, rule-enforced interface for managing work items and their relationships, without requiring users to deeply understand or navigate the underlying complexities of the Polarion data model. It simplifies both visualization and editing, enabling users to focus on the content and structure of their artifacts instead of how to correctly create and link them.

Here’s what makes Powersheet unique:

Not Just a Table — a Smart Editor

Unlike a traditional table view or report, Powersheet is an interactive, editable grid where users can both view and create structured Polarion artifacts:

• Create work items in-place: Users can add new entries directly into the Powersheet table. Powersheet determines:
  
  

  • The correct work item type
    
    

  • The proper parent-child or custom link role
    
    

  • The right target document (based on model constraints)
    
    

• Reuse existing items: Instead of duplicating, users can link to existing work items using:
  
  

  • Search by keyword
    
    

  • Context-aware filtering, showing only valid candidates based on the position in the structure
    
    

This means a user can, for example, fill out a multi-level specification hierarchy or requirements traceability matrix without needing to remember types, roles, or document placements.

Model-Driven Architecture

Powersheet is powered by a YAML-based model configuration that defines:

• Entity types: What Polarion types are relevant in a particular domain (e.g. System Requirement, Design Input)
  
  

• Relationships: Which link roles are allowed (e.g. refines, verifies, is realized by)
  
  

• Hierarchy rules: Which entities can be parents/children of others, and how many
  
  

• Document constraints: E.g. “System Requirements must be written in documents of type systemSpecification”
  
  

This model enables Powersheet to enforce consistency and guide users toward correct data structures.

It also makes Powersheet highly reusable — the same Powersheet configuration can adapt to different projects simply by remapping to a different underlying Polarion setup, without changing the core logic.

Generic, Use Case–Agnostic Engine

Powersheet is not tied to a single use case like an RTM (Requirements Traceability Matrix). Instead, it acts as a platform to support multiple structured engineering scenarios:

• RTM views across multiple levels
  
  

• Multi-level requirements breakdown (Business → System → Software)
  
  

• Test coverage matrices
  
  

• Signal or interface models
  
  

• Functional decomposition structures
  
  

• Design inputs & outputs
  
  

• And many others
  
  

Each of these is achieved by configuring:

1. A data model that defines relationships and constraints
   
   

2. A Powersheet view that determines what’s shown and how it’s edited
   
   

Embedded in Documents, Integrated in UI

Powersheet is embedded in Polarion LiveDocs — typically:

• In a document that contains the Powersheet configuration
  
  

• Or one that references a reusable Powersheet template
  
  

The UI experience is seamless:

• Users open a document
  
  

• See a structured table of items (and their relationships)
  
  

• Add/edit items directly, with structure and correctness enforced automatically
  
  

Additionally, all Powersheets can be accessed via a dedicated navigation topic in the sidebar, providing quick access to multiple configured sheets within a project.

Why Use Powersheet?

Powersheet is designed to help teams who need:

• Structured traceability across multiple levels of abstraction
  
  

• High configurability without Polarion scripting or extensions
  
  

• User-friendly editing tools for non-expert users
  
  

• Centralized enforcement of modeling rules
  
  

In short: it empowers teams to implement strong systems engineering processes, while significantly reducing the overhead and potential for mistakes.